Gone but not forgotten

[lyndonsdad1]

Ernie Berwick's in Dalkeith Place,Kettering where in the mid 50's I can remember seeing Graham Farish 00 gauge Black 5 and Bulleid pacific.Never mind eh?????

[cary hill]

Model railway shops in Leicester used to include North's at the Melton Rd/Loughborough Rd junction north of Leicester city centre and Norcol Models in Braunstone Gate, located almost in the shadows of the former Great Central viaducts south of the site of Leicester Central station.

 

There was also a shop called Apex Craft in Churchgate, Leicester, which later relocated to the corner of Belgrave Gate/Charles St. I purchased my first K's loco kit at North's and can remember acquiring several Mainline and Lima "bargains" (or so they seemed at the time) from the other two - over thirty years ago now!

All three alas are long gone, although thankfully it's not far to "The Signal Box" in Anstey, just outside Leicester, which seems to be surviving quite well.

[geoffers]

1970s and 80s - Geoff Barlow in Poole, Dudley Dimmock in Charminster Models in Bournemouth, and very briefly a model shop near the barbers in Leigh Road in Wimborne.  I did enjoy visiting Dave Cleal when he was in Chandler's Ford as well.

[HSB]

I spent many a happy hour from my teens onwards in Torbay Model Railway Supplies in Torquay run by the late George Savage. You could hardly get through the door but if you wanted anything George could usually be relied on to unearth it from somewhere under the many piles of stuff. He was also a great character.

[muddys-blues]

A real tip of a model shop was "Rocket" Ronnie's Farnworth Model Rail shop, mostly disorganised but full of lots of gems, I think he had more stuff in the back and upstairs than he did in the shop itself, sadly Ronnie died some years ago and so did the shop as well with his passing.

Edited March 25, 2013 by muddys-blues

[Black Sheep]

My local shop was Wakefield model and craft centre, always used to pester my parents to take us.

 

Used to go to 'Kits and Bits' in Barnsley in the '90's as well (used to be toymaster) but don't recall buying model trains there.

 

Lost interest in model railways when I went to uni.

[Butler Henderson]

Aside from the Nottingham area stores already mentioned the sheer number of stores where some stock could be found was amazing in the 1970s. Remember the release of Triang-Hornbys 9F and was bought one from the model section of the huge Co-Op store only to find it was faulty and then it turned out so was their entire stock of them which proves a shop having a dud batch of locos is nothing new. Then there was Skills toy shop which held a huge quantity of spare parts until went in one day for a tender chassis frame only to find they has sold the entire spars stock to "some block" the previous day. There was a hardware store in East Leake which had a model shop at its rear, similarly recall a petrol station just outside Scarborough on the A64 which also had a model section. A trip to Millholme was always a chance to peer with more hope than expectation at the contents in the glass cabinets.

[melmerby]

A few more:

Wasn't there a model shop in N. London called "Chuffs"?

I seem to remember it used to advertise itself as full of rusty trains!

I bought a die-cast 00 GWR 2-6-2T, I think it is a Farish one.

 

How about Bearwood Models in - Bearwood!

Also I think there was a train shop in Constitution Hill Birmingham.

 

There was a model shop in Edinburgh in a street parallel to Princes Street (Rose Street?) I bought a load of Airfix coaches & wagons there at rock bottom prices when they were selling them off.

 

At one time most High Streets used to have a model shop selling trains

 

Keith

Edited March 25, 2013 by melmerby

[neal]

Does anyone remember Baileys Dailies in Brislington?

 

At one point there were two shops, a newsagents and general toy shop (hence the name) and across the road and up Sandy Park, a model shop.

 

N

[Guest]

A few more:

Wasn't there a model shop in N. London called "Chuffs"?

I seem to remember it used to advertise itself as full of rusty trains!

 

There was and it did! Those ads in Railway Modeller were something to behold, a quarter page of rambling jottings concerned with (if I recall aright) vampires and suchlike and barely a mention of trains. I bought a Minitrix BRCW Type 2 in there. Lovely runner.

 

My local model shop (at about 20 miles away from home) was Farnham Models, a tiny place run by a chap called Alan. We shared an enthusiasm for Amercian outline N-gauge. He it was who introduced me to the delights of the Digitol Gemini controller. I still have it...somewhere...

[scorpion]

The Chuffs ads were very strange for the time, when Farish brought out the Pannier i'm sure the ad went something like " a flim and half legs for a deuce" whatever that meant

 

i never got to visit them to see if they were really as weird as they made out

[Guest]

i never got to visit them to see if they were really as weird as they made out

 

Trust me. They were. It's many years ago that I went there, but I do recall seeing a shop that looked rather like a faintly disreputable establishment dealing in secondhand furniture. The stock, as I recall, was indeed largely secondhand - but that could be because I was aiming for that and ignoring the rest. I explained to the guy there (whose hair even longer than mine, and mine was the frequent source of much conflict between myself and an ex-forces father who considered the answer to all the world's woes to be three years in the army) that I was starting out in N-gauge and needed a loco. He kindly pointed me to the shelves and left me to it. 

 

Those shelves were something else: I don't remember them being sorted even by scale. Anyway, I found what I wanted, took it back to the counter and paid for it. It was handed to me in a brown paper bag that looked as if it had been picked up off the floor. It was a very interesting shop. I liked it. After I left, I remember taking myself off to King's Cross station for my first ever visit there, stood at the end of Platform 1 as a Deltic started its engines. Not a sight and sound you easily forget.

[simon hudson]

Applegarths in Durham  I got my Trix Scotsman saved Christmas he did, (at least my dad did after been let down by Nu-Sto of Horden orderd in August he actually contacted dad to say it was in stock then let some one else have it) the next year it was the Trix A2  Applegarths again.

Josephs in Sunderland more of a toy shop but they always had a model railway and had to be visited at Christmas time.

Balmers Houghton-le-Spring always had Hornby Dublo and lots of Airfix kits

Happy days

[Sir Hadyn]

The Train Shop, Warwick, in both its locations, Coten End and St Johns, had a lot to answer for. Very sad when that went for the last time.

[TheSignalEngineer]

A few more:

...................How about Bearwood Models in - Bearwood!

Also I think there was a train shop in Constitution Hill Birmingham.

Keith

Remember Bearwood Models well. I think they also had the shop on the Parade down the Sandpits in Birmingham. It was possibly them who moved to Constitution Hill when the Parade was knocked down. Still running the Dublo stuff I had from the Parade shop in 1958. Did me a Montrose and a Ludlow Castle for a fiver the pair when Binns Road closed!!

 

Surviving a bit later was

 

This is a scan from a paper bag in my workbox which still contains some offcuts of embossed plasticard sheets which originally came in it around 1979.

Burlington Passage went through the Midland Hotel opposite New St station. The shop was only about 6ft wide but had a stock room upstairs in the hotel block.

[Sir Hadyn]

The Iron Horse bar was next to Burlington passage too, with its fake coach sides facing onto the street. Wasn't there a 7 1/4" Royal Scot in there too.

 

Wyatt & Tizard was also an occasional visit for us, Dad took all his old Triang there and part-exed it for a Hornby Albert Hall from memory.

[melmerby]

Remember Bearwood Models well. I think they also had the shop on the Parade down the Sandpits in Birmingham. It was possibly them who moved to Constitution Hill when the Parade was knocked down. Still running the Dublo stuff I had from the Parade shop in 1958. Did me a Montrose and a Ludlow Castle for a fiver the pair when Binns Road closed!!

 

Surviving a bit later was

Burlington.jpg

 

This is a scan from a paper bag in my workbox which still contains some offcuts of embossed plasticard sheets which originally came in it around 1979.

Burlington Passage went through the Midland Hotel opposite New St station. The shop was only about 6ft wide but had a stock room upstairs in the hotel block.

Burlington Passage (much altered) is still there.

 

Going back even further, wasn't there a model shop in the passages around the, long gone, Theatre Royal? (Or maybe my memory has failed me!)

There used to be a shop on Moseley Road, Balsall Heath that used to say "Bassett Lowke", Not sure whether it was them or a dealer.

 

Keith

Edited March 27, 2013 by melmerby

[andytrains]

Remember Bearwood Models well. I think they also had the shop on the Parade down the Sandpits in Birmingham. It was possibly them who moved to Constitution Hill when the Parade was knocked down. Still running the Dublo stuff I had from the Parade shop in 1958. Did me a Montrose and a Ludlow Castle for a fiver the pair when Binns Road closed!!

 

Surviving a bit later was

Burlington.jpg

 

This is a scan from a paper bag in my workbox which still contains some offcuts of embossed plasticard sheets which originally came in it around 1979.

Burlington Passage went through the Midland Hotel opposite New St station. The shop was only about 6ft wide but had a stock room upstairs in the hotel block.

The bloke that ran the The Model Shop in Burlington Arcade, Birmingham was very helpful. He helped me out with putting together the valve gear on the 2nd kit I ever built, a K's Stanier 2-8-0. I remember access to the stock room was via a very narrow cast iron spiral stairs.

There was also a model railway shop in Walmley village, Sutton Coldfield, in the late 1970's, but I cannot remember its name. I should do as this was a regular 'tea spot' for me when I was on the beat in Sutton.

Edited March 27, 2013 by andytrains

[Andy Y]

This is a scan from a paper bag in my workbox which still contains some offcuts of embossed plasticard sheets which originally came in it around 1979.

Burlington Passage went through the Midland Hotel opposite New St station. The shop was only about 6ft wide but had a stock room upstairs in the hotel block.

In the mid to late 70s there was also a radio shop which sold models on the corner of Navigation Street and Stephenson Street and I seem to recall a shop somewhere around Bull Street but I could be mistaken on that in addition to Argylle Models before they became Beatties and Rackhams toy department too.

 

Moving northwards to Wolverhampton there was Fenwicks on Pitt Street - http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050359@N07/1083518092/ (guns and railways ) as well as the shop on Bell Street at the side of the Mander Centre. Modellers Mecca used to be in Albion Parade at Wall Heath (cracking shop), I have forgotten the name of the shop on Bridge Street in Walsall but I think it was the only place where I ever saw a Wrenn Brighton Belle in stock and there was a small shop on Stafford Styreet in Dudley which still had Kitmaster stock in the mid 70s.

 

There's only one name in there which is still with us!

[melmerby]

In the mid to late 70s there was also a radio shop which sold models on the corner of Navigation Street and Stephenson Street

 

Horntons

 

Used to have a sensor in the window which you covered with a hand to operate a train.

 

Keith

[Andy Y]

Horntons

Brilliant! Thank you!

[TheSignalEngineer]

I remember the one in Walsall, used to go there whenever I had a job in the area.

The shop in Navigation St was Horntons.

There was the Model Aerodrome in Birmingham, churchyard end of Cherry St I think. Remember going there to get bits and pieces.

 

Edit - Beaten to it on Horntons

Edited March 28, 2013 by TheSignalEngineer

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

 

Moving northwards to Wolverhampton there was Fenwicks on Pitt Street

 

(guns and railways )

 

Useful place for forum admins?

 

Mike.

[andytrains]

The bloke that ran the The Model Shop in Burlington Arcade, Birmingham was very helpful. He helped me out with putting together the valve gear on the 2nd kit I ever built, a K's Stanier 2-8-0. I remember access to the stock room was via a very narrow cast iron spiral stairs.

There was also a model railway shop in Walmley village, Sutton Coldfield, in the late 1970's, but I cannot remember its name. I should do as this was a regular 'tea spot' for me when I was on the beat in Sutton.

Wyatt and Tizzards, in Warwick Road, Greet, Birmingham! (Near Tyseley).

[28XX]

Worcester had:

 

Frost's in Pump Street, run by two brothers

 

Ash's in Bridge Street run by a scary albino guy with thick glazed spectacles

 

One opposite the grammar school, 10 points to whoever remembers the name first.